Illinois ranked #12 in AP Poll, #13 in Coaches Poll (1/7 polls)

If close doesn't count, why did Arizona move down a spot after "close" victories against Colorado and Utah? According to you, pollers don't take into account "close" games. If they don't, why did the Wildcats move down a spot after playing two close games?

Well, it's a stretch to say Arizona "moved down". They were only 40 votes ahead of Louisville the prior week, now they are a mere 5 votes behind them in the AP Poll. And I think the fact that there was an obvious gaffe by the officials in the CU game played into it. They didn't move down in the USAToday poll.

They still won those games, Marquette didn't. A week or so after Maui, no one looks at Marquette's record and thinks "well, one of those losses was almost a win!" No, it's just 3 losses.

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Yes, UConn is great! Beat #14 MSU early in the season, were ranked after just a week of play,

pre-season rankings are a pile of crap, so beating "#14" isn't impressive. Are we still impressed by IU's win over "#9 UNC"? Of course not.

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have a new head coach that is turning this squad around,

If they are "great" and had that impressive early win, what's he "turning around"?

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and also beat Washington on the road. They're 10-2.

OOOOOHHH! Washington! Say no more! :laugh:

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That would be Wisconsin isn't very good. And any win in the Kohl's Center should still be a resume "enhancer."

I am not at all concerned with where we are ranked. The name of the game is resume building, and we have done that so far. We will certainly lose are fair share of games in the BIG, but we will have opportunties for resume building wins, for the most part, on a weekly basis until the tournament starts.

The greatest thing about college baseketball is that it's not college football. Regular season rankings mean squat. The main reason I like to see us ranked is that it gives us more national exposure, and it makes team easier for me to follow (scores of T25 are almost always easier to find)

I still can't figure out how the zags are ranked in front of us? I can see every team but them being ranked above us but we went to there house and beat them...just doesn't make sense to me....?

You should look at the rankings on a week-by-week basis to see the trend. Illinois was ahead of Gonzaga after they won. Illinois has lost twice since then, while Gonzaga has not. Thusly, Gonzaga rose in the polls while Illinois fell.

It's odd how the polls work. It really isn't based on who is playing the best basketball right now. It's more like, who isn't playing worse. Losses cause ranking shift far more than wins do. People were pretty surprised when Illinois leapfrogged Kansas in 2004-05 with the WF blowout. Kansas had done nothing wrong and on most days would have been the de facto #1 team. However, Illinois' beating of WF was so out-of-this-world that the voters passed on Kansas and went right to UI instead. On the contrary, tough, a loss by Illinois would have knocked them down easily to #6 or worse. One of the BTN guys said after the game yesterday that Illinois looked like the best team in the country against tOSU. But people don't actually vote that way. Teams that win are expected to stay where they are. Teams that lose are expected to fall. Generally, the only reason you go up in rankings is because teams that were ahead of you fell due to a loss.

I think voters do this because it's easier -- they don't have to analyze every team in the country to see who is really playing the best right now. Would be hellacious to have to do so every week. Is Illinois a better team than Gonzaga? Quite possibly, and the game in Spokane is strong evidence to support that claim, but voters don't/can't order all teams in the country based on who they think is better.

Mercifully, the selection committee doesn't look at it this way. If both Gonzaga and Illinois are positioned where they are now in March, it's quite possible Illinois is granted a higher seeding than Gonzaga based on the h2h matchup.

I am not at all concerned with where we are ranked. The name of the game is resume building, and we have done that so far. We will certainly lose are fair share of games in the BIG, but we will have opportunties for resume building wins, for the most part, on a weekly basis until the tournament starts.

The greatest thing about college baseketball is that it's not college football. Regular season rankings mean squat. The main reason I like to see us ranked is that it gives us more national exposure, and it makes team easier for me to follow (scores of T25 are almost always easier to find)

This. I just hope we continue to play well and beat MINN.

We need to re-establish AH as the house of pain. BS was 22-0 at the hall for a stretch and I believe we can get close to that although the BT is much more stacked these days.

For those at the game, hope that they can be the 6th man and cause havok!

There are good teams (even ranked teams) that still have zero wins over currently ranked opponents, which is why Illinois' victories over No. 9 Gonzaga, No. 14 Butler and No. 15 Ohio State are notable. John Groce has been incredible in his first season with the Illini. He's got a pretty strong 14-2 record.

But don't try telling that to Randy Rosetta.

Because Randy isn't buying it!

The writer from the New Orleans Times-Picayune -- a paper that was featured on Sunday's "60 Minutes," by the way -- has Illinois ranked 20th on his ballot. He's actually got the Illini ranked eight spots behind the Ohio State team they beat by 19 points, seven spots behind the Butler team they beat by 17 points and two spots behind the Gonzaga team they beat by 11 points at Gonzaga. Seriously, how could anybody conclude a team that's 14-2 with convincing wins over Gonzaga, Butler and Ohio State should be ranked behind Gonzaga, Butler and Ohio State? Or how a team that's 14-2 with convincing wins over Gonzaga, Butler and Ohio State should be ranked six spots behind Cincinnati?

You should look at the rankings on a week-by-week basis to see the trend. Illinois was ahead of Gonzaga after they won. Illinois has lost twice since then, while Gonzaga has not. Thusly, Gonzaga rose in the polls while Illinois fell.

It's odd how the polls work. It really isn't based on who is playing the best basketball right now. It's more like, who isn't playing worse. Losses cause ranking shift far more than wins do. People were pretty surprised when Illinois leapfrogged Kansas in 2004-05 with the WF blowout. Kansas had done nothing wrong and on most days would have been the de facto #1 team. However, Illinois' beating of WF was so out-of-this-world that the voters passed on Kansas and went right to UI instead. On the contrary, tough, a loss by Illinois would have knocked them down easily to #6 or worse. One of the BTN guys said after the game yesterday that Illinois looked like the best team in the country against tOSU. But people don't actually vote that way. Teams that win are expected to stay where they are. Teams that lose are expected to fall. Generally, the only reason you go up in rankings is because teams that were ahead of you fell due to a loss.

I think voters do this because it's easier -- they don't have to analyze every team in the country to see who is really playing the best right now. Would be hellacious to have to do so every week. Is Illinois a better team than Gonzaga? Quite possibly, and the game in Spokane is strong evidence to support that claim, but voters don't/can't order all teams in the country based on who they think is better.

Mercifully, the selection committee doesn't look at it this way. If both Gonzaga and Illinois are positioned where they are now in March, it's quite possible Illinois is granted a higher seeding than Gonzaga based on the h2h matchup.

This seems like a really good explanation to me. I generally "get" the polls and I'm not terribly wrapped up in them, so they don't drive me batty. I just want to know which group of 5 we are in (1-5, 6-10, etc). However, your description of how teams move week to week makes a great deal of sense, especially with respect to how much easier it is for a pollster to alter last week's voting to reflect this week's status.

All of which is why I prefer the more statistically based systems like Sagarin and Pomeroy. I've seen us move down with a win in those and that makes sense to me. There are some wins that are such a disappointment that you should move down. Auburn and Garner-Webb felt like that.

Anyway, thanks for a more complete answer than most, especially since I agree with it

We need to re-establish AH as the house of pain. BS was 22-0 at the hall for a stretch and I believe we can get close to that although the BT is much more stacked these days.

For those at the game, hope that they can be the 6th man and cause havok!

Agreed. It used to be "which games were we going to lose on the road?" because there was no chance anyone was coming to town with hopes of beating UI. That's how you get back to relevancy and elite status.